IT SHOULD have been the proudest moment of his life but, for Welsh legend Ieuan Evans, leading his country in the 1991 World Cup rapidly became a time to forget.

It was to be the World Cup that first set the alarm bells ringing in Wales for the state of the national game and the only blot on Evans's stunningly impressive copybook.

The Llanelli wing had been named captain just a month before the tournament.

Following in the footsteps of the team that reached the semi-finals in 1987 combined with playing at an expectant Arms Park meant the pressure was on - and it didn't take long for it to show with the biggest shock in the tournament's history.

The defeat to Western Samoa ended Welsh hopes after just one game, having been drawn in the same group as cup favourites Australia.

"It was a very proud moment for me to be captain but unfortunately it wasn't memorable for the right reasons, especially losing to Western Samoa.

"I enjoyed the experience but not the outcome," said Evans.

"They say World Cups come along a year too early or too late and I think that was the case for us. We had been through some upheaval before the tournament with a change in management and squad and I think we could have done with a few more months together beforehand.

"Then I believe we could have done a lot better. But we were a happy group and went on to better things.

"There were a few young players in the squad and we got stronger and matured together nicely and went on to win the Five Nations three years later.

"It's vital to time the evolution of your team and squad for the World Cup but sometimes it's out of your hands. You can't always pre-determine when changes are going to happen and you live and die by results."

Unfortunately the results could not have got off to a worse start - the infamous 16-13 defeat to Western Samoa at the Arms Park.

Evans and fellow wing Arthur Emyr both went over for Wales, but a disputed try for the visitors and some bone-crunching tackling knocked the wind out of Welsh hearts.

"The ferocity of their tackling really took us aback but it was almost a microcosm of how the game was evolving.

"We weren't prepared for that aggression, it was part of their game that we didn't have and we were a bit slow to adapt to that.

"But since then everyone has had to embrace it and incorporate that into their game. We should have won but we didn't deserve to because we didn't play our best and in the World Cup, if you don't play your best, you lose.

"Even though it was the group stage, we had been drawn with the favourites Australia, and so we knew we were battling for second place and we knew we had to win these two other games.

"We were all distressed and as captain I was distraught.

"The only saving grace was that we had Argentina four days later so we didn't have time to dwell on it.

"But we were hurting - badly - as was the rugby public of Wales.

"It was a huge shock to lose but I think it was the first sign that the world order was changing."

Wales beat Argentina but it was a lull before the record hammering at the hands of Australia.

"The Wallabies were a wonderful team with a fantastic balance to the squad but a lot of their success was down to the skills of David Campese, as was seen in the semi-final win over the All Blacks.

"When we played them you could see they were the team that would win the cup."